Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Sometimes days in the garden can expose you to elements of nature that are a little more on the unpleasant side, kind of weird, or just plain gross. After our recent deluge of rain (does anyone even remember the word drought?) I made of pair of gross discoveries in my garden. All natural of course, but gross none the less….

It’s May, and the last thing I thought I’d be writing about is a frost in May (Our last Frost date is usually mid April).  The weather service hasn’t put out a frost warning that I know of but with temperatures predicted to be 39 degrees tonight I know my garden is in danger. Our property sits down in a…

When working in the garden or on the farm being able to positively identify poison ivy is very important. Who wants to end up with an itching spreading rash? There is the old adage “Leaves of three Let it be, leaves of five let it thrive” but that isn’t always clear. There are lots of plants that at first glance…

Today school was out, the roads were iced over, and the garden was draped in white. I always enjoy the one or two times each winter when our landscape is covered in snow. That’s the great thing about living in Tennessee – or one of the great things – the mild winters! It will snow a couple times each year…

Have you ever wondered why some plants are considered invasive? It’s usually because if the growing conditions are even slightly favorable they take over. Invasiveness can be due to a number of traits like rapid growth, prolific reseeding, and rooting vine habits. Euonymous fortunei is one such plant in which I have observed to have at least two of these…

It’s a simple fact of life that you will eventually make a mistake. You don’t know when or how, but sooner or later everyone will make a gardening goof or gaff! Mistakes range from the minor ones like forgetting to water your peace lily during the week (why do I keep repeating this one?) To cutting power lines or waterlines…

The hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) is one popular bird in the garden. We have a couple of regulars around the yard. They seem to like almost any colorful flower in the yard but are especially attracted to the zinnias. I’ve not only seen them on the zinnias but also the morning glories, the salvias, and even the tomato blossoms. The only…

Coneflowers are a work horse in many gardens including mine, but they aren’t completely issue free. Recently one of my coneflower plants began showing deformed flowers with a complete loss of color in the petals. The petals appeared stunted and pale. In some cases the deformed flowers mimic some new interesting variety of coneflower but it’s not, these are the…

This Vegetable Garden To-Do list may or may not be relevant to you. If you’re in zone 6-7 it probably is, if not it might be useful later – or maybe you already did it! It’s just a collection of things that I desperately need to complete in the vegetable garden. Maybe desperate it too strong of a word but…

You’ve probably heard of adding lime to soil.  Farmers and lawn experts recommend it frequently to add to gardens and lawns to help your plants grow, but why? Why should you use lime for your tomatoes? What is Lime? Lime is calcium carbonate.  Which leads us to one easy answer for why it might help tomatoes – to combat blossom…

This is the first video update from the garden shed. Hopefully I’ll be able to add more videos to The Home Garden over time include how-to’s and mini-garden tours! I hope you enjoy the look inside my messy construction and plant filled shed. Please be forgiving, as always it is a work in progress! http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZgrlCzP0-oQ

It’s time! I’ve already noticed a few leaves of the cherries and sassafras beginning to turn colors on their way to some fantastic fall foliage. Our August temperatures gave us a preview of the weather ahead but it couldn’t show us the potential color show that autumn brings. With fall foliage comes the 2009 edition of The Fall Color Project….

Today I spent some time outdoors getting a raised bed put together for our back slope. It gives the slope a somewhat terraced visual effect but the wooden bed isn’t needed to hold the slope in place. It’s done fine on its own for several years! Here’s the view from one side with the garden shed to the left. The…

We all know about compost.  It’s important, perhaps the most important thing we do as gardeners for our plants.  Organic matter is critical for plants to get nutrients.  It’s also extremely helpful as a waste disposal system.  Rather than throw away your biodegradable wastes from the kitchen you can compost it and use it later for the garden.  Composting makes…

It’s taken a long time for our moonflower vine (Ipomoea alba) to finally become mature enough to produce a flower. I planted two moonflower vines from seed at the base of the arbor I built for Better Homes and Gardens soon after its construction. The first couple weeks of their life was difficult due to the rabbits and their taste…

It’s January and my garden is a mess.  That’s OK because it’s January!  My garden could be the perfect mixture of evergreen conifers and winter color landscape plantings specifically designed to brighten the gloomiest winter day, but it’s not.  I would love that, but my garden was never put together for the winter color.  I’m gradually adding plants for that…

Next week I’ll be starting my seed sowing and I wanted to invite all other bloggers to join in to share their experiences. Each Saturday we’ll post about what we’ve done with our seeds, what we’ve selected, what we’ve planted, and how it’s doing. From sowing to growing it’s all fair-game! What can we talk about? seed selection how you…

Updated on 11/23/2024 Fall is that time of year when gardeners begin the process of cleaning up the garden but also is the time when we begin to think of next year and saving seeds. One of the my favorite plants is echinacea and I like to save the seed from it to grow and expand gardens. Saving seeds of…